Essential Captain America volume 6

Essential Captain America volume 6 consists of Captain America and the Falcon #206 to #230 ("and the Falcon" is dropped from #223 onwards) plus Annual #4 and the crossover issue Incredible Hulk #232. The early part of the volume, including the annual, is written and drawn by Jack Kirby. The rest of the run sees a lot of creators including writers Roy Thomas, Don Glut, Steve Gerber, David Anthony Kraft, Peter Gillis, Roger McKenzie and Roger Stern plus a couple of back-ups by Scott Edelman. The most persistent artist after Kirby is Sal Buscema; others include George Tuska, Dave Cockrum, John Buscema and Mike Zeck plus Bob Budiansky and Steve Leialoha on the back-ups. One issue also contains a framed reprint of a Human Torch story from Strange Tales #113 drawn by Jack Kirby and scripted by Stan Lee. The Incredible Hulk issue is plotted by Roger Stern, scripted by David Michelinie and drawn by Sal Buscema. And with so many creators, invariably there's a separate labels post.

The early part of this volume contains the tail end of Jack Kirby's 1970s return to the title. And whilst the art remains as powerful as ever, the writing still doesn't feel terribly spectacular with the only long term addition of note being the geneticist Arnim Zola. Truly an artist's creation he has replaced his original body with a new one that has the brain in the more protected chest, with a camera in place of a head and a video screen to display a face on his chest. Zola has created all manner of creatures that he deploys, of which the most notable is Doughboy, an organism that can adjust its entire body to form itself into the equipment Zola needs to hand. Zola is certainly a bold creation but some of his impact is limited by the revelation that he's working for the Red Skull and undertaking a project to give Hitler's brain a new body. Hitler surviving by some strange scientific means was a common trope in 1960s and 1970s science fiction but today it feels cliched. It's also a sign of Kirby's habit of ignoring Marvel continuity where it suited him and it would eventually fall to the final issues of Super-Villain Team-Up to tidy the various Marvel accounts of the last days of Hitler.

Issue #207 contains a scene that has caused quite some debate, especially due to the panel on the right. As Steve changes costume in the Latin America jungle, he thinks about his experiences and the sadistic prison commandant:

Whoever runs that banana jail seems to get his kicks out of kicking the inmates! This man they call "The Swine" must be typical of the kind of bully that flourishes in these two-bit dictatorships. But this is not my country and not my place to fight for causes I know nothing about. My immediate problem is to beat this jungle -- find my way to a fair-sized town and... home!

This triggered off some debate in the blogosphere a few years ago - see Scott Edelman: Shame on you, Captain America!, Kirby Dynamics: "Shame on you, Captain America?" Part 1 and Kirby Dynamics: "Shame on You Captain America" Part 2 for the main posts on this (although be warned they drift into the different matter of 1970s Marvel staffers' attitudes about and actions to Kirby). On its own though this feels like a very clumsy attempt both to move beyond the simplistic morality of Golden Age and early Silver Age comics and also to reflect the changed outlook on US foreign policy in the post-Vietnam era. The idea that every situation has clear-cut goodies and baddies and that heroes should jump aboard every rebellion going was now being challenged, not just in the comics themselves but also in the wider world as once heroes of liberation and independence had become authoritarian dictators. The problem is the dialogue isn't terribly nuanced and the situation up to now hasn't really been presented as such. Instead the Swine has been portrayed as a latter day Nazi, right down to the uniform (but not insignia) and even drawn to resemble Himmler whilst dealing out sadistic torture. Nor is Captain America acknowledging the complexities of the situation. Instead he's just turning his back on the matter and looking to flee the land. This is not a man weighing up the difficulties of what is worse out of the current situation or the potential chaos that can be unleashed by simply overthrowing a regime without a clear successor infrastructure. Nor is he declining to back an ambiguous group of unknown rebels because they may contain even worse elements. Rather this comes across as a "None of my business" dismissal even if such cack-handedness was never the intention. And indeed the story doesn't see Cap take on the dictator but instead the Swine is killed by one of Zola's creatures, with Zola himself taking Cap back to a castle in Switzerland for the rest of the story.

There's some improvement on Kirby's earlier issues in regards the treatment of women with both Leila (who has had a massive quick recovery from her brainwashing at the end of the previous volume) and Sharon showing greater boldness and intelligence. In particular Sharon holds her own with the Red Skull. However it's also clear that Kirby had little time for the Falcon, keeping him largely out of the picture during most issues. The final two see a temporarily blinded Cap in hospital where the shady Corporation sends the Night Flyer to assassinate a patient known as "the Defector". The Falcon has a run-in with the Night Flyer but it's Cap who ultimately triumphs despite his temporary blindness. The final piece of 1970s Kirby work in the volume is the annual which sees Cap battling Magneto for the fate of a strange mutant with two separate bodies. It feels rather run of the mill with Magneto a rather generic cackling villain who wants the smaller body to investigate a tiny spaceship. All in all the Kirby run on the title has been so-so and not the return to the greatest ever days of Cap that it was hyped as.

Kirby's departure leaves a hole in the series and its not really filled for the remaining sixteen issues in this volume. Instead we get all the hallmarks of a series in creative chaos as no less than seven writers (not including the reprint or the Incredible Hulk issue) struggle with key storylines without really knowing where they're going or how long they'll last for. (The art is, however, more stable from issue #218 onwards with Sal Buscema providing at least breakdowns on all but one issue.) There are fill-ins, although efforts are made to actually include them in the ongoing narrative, and two other staples of a series in a rush - a retelling of the origin and a reprint.

These both come at the start of a run in which Captain America is slowly exploring his past to find out just who he is and who Steve Rogers is, The reasons behind this level of introspection are never made totally clear; nor is it explained just why Cap appears to have amnesia about his life before he received the Super Soldier Serum. But the result is an exploration that doubles as an exercise in retroactive continuity as new elements are added and some of what we were told before is shown to be questionable at least. The origin retelling in issue #215 runs through all the basics but for the first time in the series the two replacement Captain Americas of the late 1940s are included, following a What If? story that reinstated to continuity the Cap stories published in 1945 to 1950 as well as the All-Star Squadron. Also recapped is the previously seen Captain America of the 1950s. Following this we get a single new page as the real Cap sets out to discover about the one other Captain America, but we never learn if he does and instead enjoy a reprint of the Strange Tales story where the Human Torch battled a fake Captain America who was actually the Acrobat in disguise, complete with a floating helicopter platform including a rocket ship & launcher plus an asbestos lined lorry. It's reprinted as in the original with no attempt to explain away some of the early Silver Age silliness or just how Cap could maintain a secret identity when it was published in comics the Torch read as a child.

Back in the present, Cap's quest for his past brings up the notion that his childhood in New York was an invention and he was actually from a small town in Maryland. Through returning memories and a chat with a local he learns how Steve Rogers was a weak younger brother, more interested in art than in following in his elder brother's footsteps as first a sports star and then a soldier, much to his father's disapproval. However news reports from Europe and his brother's death at Pearl Harbour led him to attempt to enlist but he was rejected on medical grounds until a government agent identified him as suitable for a project. Although Steve's weak physique had long been an established part of the character, his family background feels like an attempt to increase his identifiability with the presumed readership of this era. It also feels like an attempt to root him in a stereotypical small town America rather than the exceptional urban New York, though with his family all dead it seems hard to build much on this at this stage and it's not followed up on in this volume.

More bizarre is another adventure told in flashback as the series sets out to explain how, in looking back at the end of the Second World War, Cap could recall falling off a missile launched from the coast of the English Channel and land in waters off Newfoundland. This could have been explained away as a confusion caused by a disoriented man just revived from suspended animation or a case of poor geographic knowledge, or just become a lettering error to be corrected in reprints. But instead we learn how Cap was picked up by a submarine commanded by renegade Nazi scientist Lyle Dekker, then taken to a base on Newfoundland before escaping in a plane carrying nerve gas , only to be shot down with the gas interacting with the Super Soldier Serum to put Cap in suspended animation with amnesia of his last battle.

There was simply no need to complicate the wonderful resurrection story by adding on this interim adventure. Nor is Dekker a particularly memorable foe even after he transfers his consciousness into the oversized artificial body dubbed the Ameridroid, who soon realises he has sacrificed his humanity for no great gain. This is retroactive continuity for the sheer heck of it and adds no more than another flashback tale in which Cap plays himself in a wartime movie serial of his life. Ultimately the search for Cap and Steve Rogers's past just rings hollow and seems to make no significant addition to the character or the series at all.

Making an addition of a rather different nature is the Corporation storyline. Picking up a thread from the last of Kirby's issues the battle with this sinister organisation runs through the second half of the volume, and also in the contemporary issues of the Incredible Hulk, before climaxing in the crossover at the end. There are a number of long-term changes in the series in the interim, including the ending of the team-up between Cap and the Falcon. Sam has been largely relegated to a bit part in many adventures here before he accepts the role of leading the Super-Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a short-lived team of new and obscure super powered beings including Marvel Man (later Quasar), the Texas Twister, the Vamp and Blue Streak. The team doesn't last long with the last two members revealed as agents of the Corporation whilst the Texas Twister leaves in disgust at the Vamp's brutal killing of Blue Streak (in fact to silence her fellow agent). Another Corporation agent is Veda, supposedly the daughter of a wartime agent present when Cap first received the Super Soldier Serum. She briefly becomes Cap's new romantic interest, with Sharon running away in pain, only to be killed off in internal power struggles within the Corporation without Cap even realising it. Other Corporation agents include the Hulk's past foes the Constrictor and Moonstone, plus the alien Animus who turns out to be the real form of the Vamp. There's also a separate attack on Cap and S.H.I.E.L.D. by the Red Skull. Tensions between Cap and Nick Fury are increasing ever more, with the former sick of being used by the agency so often.

The crossover at the end is a rare one that builds on events in both series, bringing a climax to the separate struggles with the Corporation as well as establishing the Falcon as the uncle of the Hulk's sidekick Jim Wilson. All the plot threads are tidied up which is no small achievement given the high turnover of writers. However some of the characters and events from the Incredible Hulk are not really introduced for readers of Captain America only. Consequently the whole thing can be a little confusing when read on its own.

Overall this is frankly a dull pedestrian volume. Neither Kirby nor those who followed him have been able to lift the series to new heights and instead we've had a mix of rather slow and dull adventures plus some needless retcons that try to fix things that frankly weren't broke in the first place. Captain America is a difficult series to do well and needs good long-term writers to have a real impact. This volume fails to find them.

Essential Captain America volume 5

Essential Captain America volume 5 comprises Captain America and the Falcon #187-205 plus Annual #3 and the Marvel Treasury Edition special Captain America's Bicentennial Battles. The early issues see writing by John Warner, Tony Isabella, Frank Robbins, Bill Mantlo and Marv Wolfman, and art by Frank Robbins and Sal Buscema. Then from issue #193 onwards everything, including the annual and special, is written and drawn by Cap's co-creator Jack Kirby in his mid 1970s return to Marvel. Bonus material includes Kirby's original pencils for the covers of issues #197, #198 & #199.

The first six issues show the book in a state of extreme creative mess. Frank Robbins's artwork is poor and at times veers into caricature, whilst the high turnover of writers results in no clear direction. Just to add to the mess the issues are trying to mop up after the ridiculous revelations about the Falcon at the end of the last volume that showed him to have been a gangster transformed by the Red Skull into the ultimate sleeper agent. Following a rather unusual form of shock therapy the result is that he remembers both his gangster and hero days but he feels as though he is two persons in a single body. The exact ramifications of this are not explored as well as they should be, so it's unclear just whether he now has a split personality or else the two personas have somehow merged or if one has triumphed over the other but retained both sets of memories. The result is an awkward and unsatisfactory arrangement that's at risk of falling into a mess with future writers unfamiliar with what's planned or just how Sam has reconciled the two sets of memories. His criminal status is addressed more head on with a trial that gives him a suspended sentence with Nick Fury serving as his parole officer. Given the turnover of writers it's hard to identify just who took the wrong decisions but even the option of dismissing the Red Skull's claims as false is dangled yet rather than take such a natural way out of this mess the series instead decides to go with them. But the result is deeply unsatisfactory and shows the dangers of changing writers too quickly at a critical point for the series.

The foes in these issues aren't too memorable either. There's the Druid, previously seen in the S.H.I.E.L.D. strip in Strange Tales, who has Cap whisked away to an arena for no particular reason but it helps to mark time. Back at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters acting director Jeff Cochren forces Cap to take pat in a weird fight designed to snap the Falcon out of his comatose state; it turns out to be a plot by Nightshade to take control of S.H.I.E.L.D. and conquer the world. Subsequently the Falcon's trial is interrupted by an assassination contract undertaken by old Daredevil foe Stilt-Man. Then in a fill-in issue Dr. Faustus plots to steal millions from New York City; the issue is notable as the first ever appearance of Karla Sofen, the future Moonstone, but here she's little more than a gangster's mole. It is possible that John Warner thought he had been assigned the series for the long run rather than the fill-ins he wound up doing, and Tony Isabella seems to have fallen into the same trap whilst Marv Wolfman's issue has all the signs of a one-off fill-in and there's also artist Frank Robbins contributing to the writing plus Bill Mantlo scripting the last of Isabella's plots, but this really is a classic example of how too many cooks really can spoil the broth.

"King Kirby is BACK -- and greater than ever!" proclaims the cover of issue #193, though the effect is somewhat lost here because both the annual and the Treasury edition are placed before it. This was the start of Kirby's return to Marvel after an absence of about five years. Or perhaps a partial return. Over the next few years Kirby would produce a number of titles including The Eternals, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Machine Man, Devil Dinosaur, Black Panther and this one, but only the last two were pre-existing series (and even then Black Panther was renumbered with "Jungle Action" dropped from the title). And there was very little interaction with either the wider Marvel universe or what had come before. Indeed The Eternals was even intended to be in its own continuity, years before such standalone projects became widespread. As I've noted before, Kirby's Black Panther feels somewhat like a 1970s version of Heroes Reborn, such is the disconnect from what had come before. With Captain America and the Falcon the jump is less jarring but it still feels like a big side step.

Part of this comes from the very limited use of pre-existing supporting characters and villains. Captain America and the Falcon may have worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. a lot, but it was a generic S.H.I.E.L.D. shorn of all its most familiar agents. Sharon is only seen twice in this run of issues, but seems to have been reduced to a generic superhero girlfriend who knows her boyfriend's identity but is tired him always going off on missions. This doesn't feel like the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who not only knows the score from her own experience but has often been the absent one herself. Other than the two leads, the only pre-existing character to make any significant appearance is the Falcon's girlfriend Leila, and she's a pale shadow of her former self with little of her fire and determination on display. Beyond that Captain America's Bicentennial Battles features brief appearances by Bucky and the Red Skull, plus some historical figures, but that's about it. Was Kirby, whether consciously or unconsciously, trying to cut out as much of the influence of Stan Lee as possible? Or was he just aiming for as much creative control over the series as possible? And using as few characters originated by others as possible was one way of doing this.

One of the most obvious practical consequences is a total failure to sort out the mess with the Falcon's personality and memories. Instead the whole plot point is completely ignored at the precise moment it needed tidying and the character is presented somewhat generically. Now I'd be perfectly happy to get to a situation where the whole mess is never mentioned ever again, but it's not helpful in the long term to be continuously wondering about the character and/or successive writers taking different approaches to how his past is presented. It needs a straightforward resolution that clearly establishes just who the Falcon now is and so he can easily go forward with the whole mess forgotten. Instead it's bypassed, just adding to the sense of reboot. Oddly, given the Heroes Reborn comparisons flying around, the situation feels rather like that of Iron Man who, just before the reboot, was revealed to be a long term sleeper agent of an old foe and whose resultant new status quo and background was never fully addressed before Onslaught and Heroes Reborn, and indeed for some years afterwards a traditional take on the character was presented without covering his two different pasts.

Also noticeable by its absence is any particular sense of political influence on the series. Henry Kissinger pops up at the end of issue #193 (although in accordance with a semi-observed Marvel tradition of not explicitly identifying politicians he's not actually named on panel bar telling the duo they can call him "Henny") to brief the duo but he could be any senior government figure to emphasise the severity of the situation - indeed it's more of a surprise that it's the Secretary of State rather than the President. The 200th anniversary of American independence was marked by both the Treasury Edition Captain America's Bicentennial Battles and the regular series in a storyline conveniently culminating in issue #200, but without wading into contemporary debate about just what the United States stands for or the country's role in the world; questions that were much debated in that post Vietnam era. It seems clear that, unlike Steve Engelhart or some of the series's later writers, Jack Kirby had no particular desire to use Captain America to explore contemporary questions about patriotism and politics, let alone take an actual side in such debates, but rather presented him as a figure who served all of his country, a unifying figure on a par with Uncle Sam. Indeed the final page of the Treasury Special depicts Captain America shaking hands with Uncle Sam in front of a birthday cake.

Captain America's Bicentennial Battles is itself rather inconsequential, but as the equivalent of a graphic novel that's for the best. It introduces the dubiously named "Mister Buda", a sorcerer who has since been renamed "the Contemplator", one of the various Elders of the Universe. Mister Buda sends Cap on a trip throughout American history, including the future, so as to see what America is all about. Cap sees a succession of incidents both at home and abroad, but grasps the fundamental underlying point that all are striving no matter the odds. As he explains to a group of children at the end:

That's America! A place of stubborn confidence -- where both young and old can hope and dream, and wade through disappointment, despair and the crunch of events -- with the chance of making life meaningful!

It may seem twee but then most attempts to sum up a country's civic national identity often wide up producing such general concepts that can frankly be found to work in many other countries (just think of the various attempts to bottle and distil "Britishness" that get tied in knots on this). But it's a good way to take Cap on a tour of American history as part of the general celebrations. At the Treasury Edition size the artwork must really look amazing but even in reduced form it shows Kirby's talent immensely.

Whilst the special is about celebrating what makes America, the regular series shows Cap protecting it. The Madbomb storyline is frankly a few chapters too long and somewhat unfocused. I don't actually find Kirby's dialogue as clunky as many others do, but it often seems more routine than spectacular and can dull the effect of an extended storyline. The tale takes Cap and the Falcon on an extended trip, including a visit to the hidden world of the Elite, a group of aristocrats seeking to overturn the American Revolution and install themselves in power. The climax comes as the Elite's leader, William Taurey, aims to detonate a giant "madbomb" to send the country into chaos, but there's also a personal element that he's smarting over his ancestor's defeat in a duel with an ancestor of Steve Rogers. The ideas are good but the execution isn't the best, making the showdown less amazing than it might otherwise have been.

The other adventures in this volume are also a little underwhelming. The annual is placed as the first Kirby created issue but is a total one-off tale of Cap getting caught up with two groups of aliens as an escaped prisoner is pursued and crashes on Earth; it has the revelation that Cap has backed the wrong side but is a little too black and white for the era rather than a more nuanced presentation that shows both sides with shades of grey. Meanwhile in the last few regular issues the Falcon and Leila get captured and brainwashed by the Night People, the inmates who have taken over an asylum in another dimension. Once back on Earth Cap manages to cure the Falcon through battling a corpse animated by a being from the future, though by the volume's end there's no sign of Leila having been cured.

All in all these adventures feel rather generic and awkward. Apart from the bicentennial celebrations they could frankly feature any superheroes for all the difference it makes. Captain America may have been under the full control of one of his co-creators but the result just doesn't feel as special as it was made out to be. This was one of the first times Marvel trumpeted the presence of an individual creator and so invariably expectations rise in such circumstances. But the result feels as though the baby was thrown out with the bath water, cutting out nearly all the pre-existing elements beyond the title characters, and the result is almost its own universe of rather generic characters and villains. The issues immediately before Kirby's return showed what a mess the title had already descended into so he was actually an improvement and brought stability but the result is less than exciting and not the series at its best.

Essential Captain America volume 4

Essential Captain America volume 4 consists of Captain America and the Falcon #157-186. The writing covers most of Steve Englehart's run and just touches on the start of John Warner's brief one with scattered contributions by Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, Tony Isabella and Mike Friedrich. The art covers the bulk of Sal Buscema's run, the start of Frank Robbins's and individual issues by Alan Weiss and Herb Trimpe.

This volume sees the series go on an uptick, having finally found a strong writer for the long run who directly tackles a number of problems and criticisms related to the character. A common jibe is that Captain America is physically not the most powerful of heroes; an early issue here sees him gain super strength when the Super Soldier Serum in his blood reacts with the venom of the original Viper. The result is an incredibly powerful Cap, though as time passes the strength is shown and referenced less and less. His gaining enhanced strength puts another strain on his partnership with the Falcon, who feels an inferior costumed athlete as a result. This leads to some soul searching, during which he finally gets together with Leila albeit in his costumed identity (though he seems to have revealed his identity to her, albeit it's not explicitly clear that she knows until much later), and a search for enhanced abilities that leads him to Wakanda where the Black Panther gives him his wings. Meanwhile Cap goes through some major soul searching in this volume as he faces a series of events that force him to reconsider some of his world views. Early on comes the revelation that a police officer is crooked, a sign of how corruption can be found even in places not traditionally expected, but worse is to come.

The highlight of the volume comes in the middle section with the Secret Empire storyline. In this Cap faces challenges on many fronts, starting when he's depicted as a dangerous vigilante by a hostile advertising campaign run by the Viper and Quentin Hardeman of the Committee to Regain America's Principles. Next he's framed for the murder of the Tumbler and faces being replaced by new hero Moonstone (later Nefarius), actually an agent of the Committee. Cap is arrested and seems all alone, with the Falcon away in Africa getting his wings and taking on the mobster Stoneface. However help comes in the form of "America's Sanitation Unit" of high tech vigilantes who break into his cell. This forces Cap to decide whether to break the law or turn down the only chance to clear his name, though the decision gets made or him when he's overwhelmed by the Unit's gas and taken away. Discovering that they too are agents of the conspiracy against him. With the Falcon now returned to the States and branded an accomplice, he and Cap are forced to go on the run in search of the clues to clear their names, and get attacked by the Banshee, still a foe rather than an ally of the X-Men. This brings another reversal of fortunes as they wind up allying with the handful of the X-Men who haven't been captured by the conspiracy. (This appearance came a year before the X-Men's relaunch and seems to have been designed to wrap up loose plot threads from the Beast's solo series in Amazing Adventures.) The group clashes with S.H.I.E.L.D., before learning the true foe is the shadowy organisation called the Secret Empire. Once more Steve and Sam are forced to take action they wouldn't normally do by stealing a device in order to gain the confidence of the Secret Empire in their civilian guises. This brings them to the heat of the operation where the organisation is planning to conquer America, using the ever growing popularity of Moonstone as a way to convince the people to surrender when the Secret Empire's flying saucer, powered by the brainwaves of captured mutants(!) , lands in Washington. However in the climax Cap and the others manage to escape execution thanks to the inside help of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Gabriel Jones and Peggy Carter, and they destroy the equipment then take down Moonstone who confesses to the whole conspiracy. All the living members of the conspiracy are soon arrested, though Number One flees and commits suicide.

At a distance of some decades it's not always easy to spot the targets of some of the more overt political satire. To some the Committee to Regain America's Principles is merely a shock that Marvel would print such a name or a source of hilarity for the acronym "CRAP". But the name was clearly based on the Committee to RE-Elect the President; similarly Quentin Hardeman's name is evocative of Nixon's first Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman. This tale of a secret conspiracy to take over the country by destroying confidence in existing institutions and systems and replacing them with the creations of political propaganda was reflective of the turbulent times the story was written in, but it also makes Cap face a changing world.

More so than any previous storyline, the Secret Empire tale forces Captain America to face up to the conflict between his ideals and loyalties. As he finds his reputation damaged and his actions bringing conflict with the police, he's left with little choice but to go beyond the law, even if this vindicates the attack campaign that portrays him as a vigilante. Up until now, Captain America has always been a hero of the establishment, acting for authority that was assumed inherently benign and having no doubt about what "serving my country" means. But now he finds himself in a much greyer world, where established symbols, positions and systems can't always be trusted, where venerated figures can turn out to be crooks, where public opinion can quickly turn against a dedicated symbol and where sometimes the only way to achieve results is to go outside the law. 1974 was the year in which both the Punisher and Wolverine debuted and, whilst neither may have been intended to go on to become major stars at the time, they both symbolised the way in which the presentation of morality in superhero comics was changing away from the simplicity of the Golden and Silver Ages. It was inevitable that Captain America would have to face the blast of change. And it comes in one of the most dramatic, and potentially libellous, ways imaginable. On the final page of issue #175 Captain America pursues Number One into the White House and unmasks him in the Oval Office, recognising the face beneath. We're not shown the face but dialogue states he holds "high political office" but "my power was still too constrained by legalities!" Could there be any doubt who it was meant to be? Perhaps this famous South Park dialogue could have been applied:

I knew it was you all along, Richard Nixon!

So Marvel in the summer of 1974 all but named the President of the United States as a crook. Who would have thought that Richard Nixon could be anything but squeaky-clean? I'm amazed that something so daringly libellous could have been put out and got away with. Today there would no doubt have been an outrage.

However, this may not have always been the plan. In the preceding issue Number One mentions "the fortuitous Watergate scandal! Ah, if only we'd known that was coming! How much simpler it has made our work." True it could be a red herring but it also might indicate how last minute the revelation was decided upon. It's not the only revelation that doesn't quite fit with what's come before, with Sergeant Muldoon turning out to be the Cowled Commander, trying to whip up public opinion to reform the police force on tougher lines. This sits uneasily with his actions after suspension in which he investigated Steve and seemed to believe the rookie cop was the Commander. It's not the only sudden revelation that comes out of nowhere in this volume.

But regardless of how far in advance the shock ending was planned, it leads to a dramatic follow-up as for a whole issue Cap fights no foes but reflects upon how he came to be, how the world has changed since the Second World War and how he can no longer serve an America that is much changed and where the government has been shown to be self-serving. His friends and allies try to dissuade him, but he decides to abandon the costume. And he doesn't quickly resume it.

For the next seven issues we have a world in which Steve Rogers is no longer Captain America. At first this pushes the Falcon into centre stage, but it becomes increasingly clear that Steve can't stay out of the action, much to both the Falcon and Sharon's annoyance, and Hawkeye forces the point by posing as the Golden Archer and attacking him, so Steve eventually adopts a new costumed identity as Nomad - the Man without a Country. Meanwhile a succession of other men decide they have what it takes to be the next Captain America, but each soon learns they don't. Eventually one is killed by the Red Skull and this brings a catharsis as Steve realises the things he fights for are not out of date. He fights not for a government but for the "American Dream" and against all threats to it, whether from without or within. As a result he resumes the costume. It's amazing that he was kept out of it for so long but by the end it's become clear - Captain America is not just a costume that anyone can put on; he is far, far more. He is not an agent of the US government but a servant of the whole country, dedicated to a set of ideals. It's a powerful storyline and statement that gets to the heart of the character and defines him for the long run.

Elsewhere this run finally resolves the loose ends relating to Cap's wartime sweetheart whose name he hasn't even known until now. Having lived in shock for three decades, Peggy Carter is a more personal reminder of how much the world has grown and changed since the Second World War, being now a middle aged woman who has suffered amnesia and been kept in isolation until the intervention of Dr Faustus causes her to relive events and come to her senses. I wonder just how much research into psychiatric issues was actually undertaken for this storyline. The reunion is touching, but Steve and Sharon deliberately try to avoid telling Peggy that the man she has waited so long for is now with her sister, resulting in some awkward dancing round the point. Although it's not addressed directly here, this does raise a question about Sharon's ethics and conduct in keeping Peggy and Cap in the dark about each other whilst taking up with the latter. Over time Peggy comes to realise what she and Cap had is long gone and instead she and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Gabriel Jones are drawn to each other. One irritation I find with Peggy's return is the inability to decide if her hair is light or dark, with it changing across issues.

Outside of the Secret Empire and Nomad sagas, the villains in the volume are somewhat limited, with the original Viper fairly prominent in the early run, at first working for the Cowled Commander both solo and in combination with other foes as the group "Crime Wave" which also contains the Porcupine, the Eel, the Scarecrow and Plantman. The Viper and the Eel then form the Serpent Squad with the Cobra; later on they are joined by both Princess Python and Madame Hydra, with the latter killing the Viper and taking his name before putting the group into an alliance with the Atlantean warlord Krang. Elsewhere there are return appearances by Dr Faustus and the Harlem crimelord Morgan and from the X-Men comes Lucifer. The Yellow Claw also clashes with Cap and the Falcon for the first time, allied with new foe, the female scientist Nightshade. Unfortunately her impact is somewhat diminished when her serum temporarily turns the Falcon into a were-wolf. Equally weak is Solarr, who has the power to absorb and discharge solar energy. Another new foe who initially seems to be a mere one-off is the Phoenix, the vengeance seeking son of Baron Zemo. Coming in an outlandish costume and falling into a vat of corrosive chemicals, not to mention being in a fill-in issue with a different writing team, it's surprising that anyone would or could bring him back, but he's gone on to do many things as Baron Zemo II.

The very end of the volume sees the quality take a sudden nosedive thanks to three separate developments. Frank Robbins takes over on the art but his style feels completely wrong for the series and just looks awful. The Red Skull returns but there is a shift in his aims away from seeking to conquer the world and more towards spreading fear and destruction. Unfortunately this turns him into a Joker clone and at times he's practically chewing the scenery. And there's a very awkward retcon about the Falcon, changing his past completely to make him a crook and pimp who had crashed on the island where Cap first met him. The Red Skull had used the Cosmic Cube to completely change his personality, memories and the world around him in order to provide the perfect partner for Cap, then eventually use the Falcon as a sleeper agent in reserve in case other plans failed. For this he has enhanced Sam with mental powers to communicate with the falcon Redwing (resulting in the brief assumption that the Falcon is a mutant, a point that would curiously dog the character for many years to come) and also made him completely responsive to the Skull's orders, no matter how humiliating the command. The whole thing appears to be motivated by a desire to paper over the previous backstory of ex-Axis agents hiding on a seemingly deserted island advertising for a falconer who arrived by regular freighter, but rather than just shrugging off a bit of Silver Age silliness the Falcon is instead twisted into becoming a cliché, as though no black in America can be allowed to be free of crime. It's also absurd long-term planning by the Skull - and at this point in 1975 the series was still setting events in real time so Cap had been revived in 1964 and known the Falcon for six years - and a very bizarre use for the Cosmic Cube. All in all this feels like a 1970s version of the Avengers saga "The Crossing".

It's unfortunate that the volume should end on such a mess when so much of it has been so bold and memorable. By taking on the main problems both the series and the main character have had, not to mention the changing attitudes to "America" and patriotism, the result is a bold uptick that makes this a strong and decisive volume. There are some odd moments but overall a lot of development has been done. Although the Falcon has taken steps both forwards and back, Captain America is much the stronger character as a result.

Essential Captain America volume 3

In addition to continuing our Captain America month, today sees the return to UK screens of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. So here's a volume with, amongst other things, some appearances of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Essential Captain America volume 3 is made up of issues #127-156, with the book's title becoming Captain America and the Falcon from #134 onwards. Additionally it contains the covers from the all-reprint annuals #1 & #2. The writing covers the end of Stan Lee's run, brief runs by Gary Friedrich and Gerry Conway, and then the start of Steve Englehart's. The art is a mixture of runs by Gene Colan, John Romita and Sal Buscema, with individual issues contributed to by Gray Morrow and Gil Kane.

This volume continues the search for a clear identity and direction for both the character and series, with a mixture of science-fiction spy drama, down to earth tales from the road, gritty urban crime and some bizarre out of this universe moments all presented as a succession of authors grapple with the problem. However, solutions slowly present themselves. The first issue in this volume sees a blow to the status quo as Cap falls out with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury after they question his loyalty and put him through a fierce test to smoke out a traitor in the ranks. S.H.I.E.L.D. may nowadays be portrayed as a ruthless organisation who will suspect anyone easily, but at the time its portrayal in earlier issues was as a cosier, friendlier organisation. Such an abrupt shift in presentation is jarring, even though it serves a purpose in cutting down on Cap's ties to allow him to go on the open road. The next few issues see Cap climb on the bandwagon of going out on the road to find one's self, taking off on a motorbike into the country at large. Although it doesn't last long, it does allow the opportunity to take him away from the various trappings around him and drill down into the character as he sees the country at large and faces up to the fact that not everything is black and white. At one stage he tries to ditch his costumed identity but he soon finds himself drawn back to it. "Looks like I can no more shed my shield-slinging other self than Nixon can shed ol' Spiro!" declares Cap in issue #129. (Clearly he didn't foresee events of the next few years when Spiro Agnew would prove rather easier to lose than the average Vice President.)

"Here's where I oughta step in and make like a swingin' hero! But how do I know whose side to take?" thinks Cap as he watches a student riot in issue #130. The famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 was only five months old at this stage, and indeed may not have been the first to highlight this point, but the idea was clearly taking root that heroes can't always simply swoop into a tense situation and put things to right by vanquishing one side. Later in the same issue Cap goes on television to talk about law and order, but instead he steers a middle line against both violence and aloof establishments that drive people to desperate measures. Here we see the first clear repositioning of Cap as loyal to the concepts underlying his country rather than to the authorities of the day. It may at this stage seem to be a subtle splitting of the hair but it helps to move the character away from an authoritarian, establishment line that would likely have doomed him to cancellation as the 1970s wore on.

And then we get multiple attempts to provide Cap with a partner. A two-part story during this road stage sees the seeming return of Bucky, but it feels badly disjointed. The first part sees Baron Strucker searching the gyms of San Francisco for suitable bait to trap Cap and coming across an amnesiac young man who looks exactly like Bucky. Strucker is soon defeated and Cap is left apparently reunited with his partner. However the next issue reveals that this is in fact a robot duplicate made by Doctor Doom as part of a challenge set by Modok and A.I.M., with Strucker having been manipulated by Modok. Unfortunately Doom has made the robot too well so that it perfectly duplicates Bucky's outlook and thus it cannot bring itself to kill Cap. Although the elements of the plots are actually quite good when considered on their own, give or take Doctor Doom so easily performing a task for others just because his skill has been deliberately questioned, the way Strucker is suddenly revealed to have been unknowingly guided by thoughts implanted by Modok feels like a fast U-turn. The fact that it comes so close to Cap acquiring a regular partner - notably an equal rather than a mere sidekick - suggests that originally the intention was to bring back the real (and original) Bucky before someone decided that this wouldn't be such a great move and so retconned him out this way, then went down the Falcon route.

The Falcon had already been introduced in the previous volume but he returns in #133 where he and Cap realise they have a lot in common, both being lone heroes but they soon come to work together. The pairing may seem surprising, with Cap traditionally focused on national or global threats and the Falcon operating against urban crime in Harlem, but there's a strong bond between the two that sees each drawn into the other's world, helped somewhat by Cap also gaining a day time job in his alter ego of Steve Rogers. Initially asked to go under cover as a police officer to investigate disappearances in Harlem, Steve opts to maintain the role, finding a purpose for himself away from the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. However there are signs that he can't maintain the job forever, often having to call in sick or go away because of his work as Cap, ad by the end of the volume his sergeant and patrol car partner are secretly investigating him. Still it allows Steve a chance to evolve away from the mask.

Meanwhile the Falcon finds himself caught between multiple roles. As Sam Wilson, his day job is a social worker in Harlem but he finds himself often denigrated for working with whites and being "an Uncle Tom". Even a woman he is attracted to attacks him for this. At the same time his relationship with Cap has its ups and downs and the two briefly split but soon find they need each other the more. The Falcon is loyal and dependable but absolutely not a subordinate sidekick, and the two make for a good odd couple many years before the teaming of Power Man and Iron Fist.

Although Cap initially breaks with S.H.I.E.L.D., the organisation doesn't disappear and he soon finds himself working with them again and again, though Nick Fury is angry about Cap's refusal to become a full time S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and at one stage issues an order revoking Cap's S.H.I.E.L.D. clearance and banning any agent from having contact with him. Fortunately for Sharon Carter this doesn't last and she and Steve soon resume and develop their relationship. Meanwhile S.H.I.E.L.D. demonstrates what passes for its equal opportunities policy when it presents "Femme Force One", with Sharon yelling "Right on, sisters!" and "If this doesn't make you believe in the women's lib movement... I don't know what will!" Cap quietly just says he believes in Femme Force "and let it slide at that!" It's not the most liberated presentation of women and the unit is not helped by a rather catty relationship between Sharon and her deputy, Val de Fontaine, due to the latter's flirting with Cap, apparently in reaction to Nick Fury's relations with another woman. The whole mess climaxes when Fury turns up at Steve's apartment to have it out with him, until Val shows up to explain her actions. The whole storyline feels awkward, forcing several people to act out of character to make it work, and it's unsurprising that it's swept aside so easily in the first issue by a new writer.

There's an attempt to develop a supporting cast away from S.H.I.E.L.D. with a couple of significant characters introduced, each a part of the down to earth urban environment both heroes are now based in. Leila is a strong minded woman from Harlem who looks down on Sam for supposedly selling out, but he is nevertheless strongly attracted to her. Sergeant Muldoon is Steve's immediate superior as a police officer. A hardliner who reminds Steve of his wartime superior Sergeant Duffy, Muldoon is subsequently suspended for bribery and corruption but then embarks upon a private investigation of Steve's affairs.

As on a number of titles, Stan Lee departs on a cliffhanger, here midway through a saga involving the Grey Gargoyle and S.H.I.E.L.D. Lee's final page shows the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier destroyed and the Gargoyle about to seize the most dangerous substance on Earth. A replacement helicarrier is soon deployed and the Gargoyle defeated, but it's a telling sign of how series were often written on the hoof as though it were a game of Consequences.

If there's one area where the series continues to be particularly deficient, it's in the villains. Only two new foes of any substance are introduced in these pages. One is Stone-Face, a Harlem crimelord, and the other is the Monster Ape, a scientist who becomes a giant primate. There are a few imports from other series in the form of encounters with first the Mole Man and later the Grey Gargoyle and the Kingpin, then the Scorpion and Mr Hyde in tandem. Meanwhile of Captain America's more established foes, the Red Skull shows up here on no less than three separate occasions whilst Batroc appears twice, the first time with "Batroc's Brigade" made up of Whirlwind and the Porcupine, the second time with a Brigade made up of ordinary thugs. Baron von Strucker, Modok and AIM also all appear again, albeit in just one storyline. And then there's Hydra, with the Supreme Hydra on this occasion revealed to be the son of the Kingpin, actually serving as a subordinate to reclusive Las Vegas millionaire "Harold Howard" who is in fact the Kingpin himself, who in turn doesn't realise it's his son under the mask, but both are in fact being manipulated by the real mastermind, the Red Skull, who unleashes yet another sleeper robot to attack the US. Isn't this all a wee bit excessive? Or there's the case of Batroc's second appearance in this volume when he's again accompanied by his Brigade, who are kidnapping on behalf of an unseen contractor who seemingly turns out to be the Stranger but is in fact the being Jakar, the sole survivor from another universe, impersonating the Stranger. I suspect the original plan was to use the actual Stranger until there was an editorial intervention, and the result is the rapid creation of a lookalike character to cover the usage.

Whatever the intention, the Jakar story sees the series at a low, entering a science fiction world in which the villain is trying to repopulate his world and has hired Batroc to kidnap people for it. The two just jar heavily, even more if Jakar was actually meant to be the Stranger, and the whole thing feels like a storyline more at home in the Fantastic Four or Thor. The earlier storyline with Hydra, the Kingpin and the Red Skull also feels out of place, with the setting of Las Vegas and a villain having kidnapped a Howard Hughes type reclusive millionaire and using his business empire for criminal schemes showing the influence of the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever a little too much.

The last four issues see the arrival of Steve Englehart as writer and almost immediately the series makes a bold step forward, starting to explore more deeply the role of Captain America amidst competing visions of patriotism. Englehart's first storyline explains the Captain America stories published in the 1950s, revealing that the Captain America and Bucky (and, in passing, also the Red Skull) seen in them were all replacements. With Roy Thomas as the editor, it's easy to see where the idea came from. But instead of a straightforward exercise in retroactive continuity, we get something that works on a whole different level as we get a solid contrast between differing visions of patriotism and the eras the Captain Americas are drawn from. For the 1950s Captain America embodies fanatical super-patriotism that denounces disagreement as Communism and treachery, and dismisses blacks and others as not being "pure-blooded Americans". Together with an equally fanatical and vicious Bucky by his side, the result is a strong clash of ideologies between the original Captain America, with his Roosevelt-Kennedy liberal patriotism, and the 1950s Captain America, awash with McCarthyism. When originally published in the early 1970s the President of the United States was Richard Nixon, who had built his national reputation as an anti-Communist two decades earlier. Was this story also an early subtle jab at Nixon? The 1950s Cap and Bucky have been brought out of suspended animation by men upset by Nixon's to China (now there's a challenge and a half for those who try to update the Marvel timeline!) but for many these actions did not negate his earlier role. At a more personal level the original Captain America is left shaken by the possibility that he too could have easily gone down the route of "super-patriotism, madness, and mayhem" but for having received the vita-ray treatment which his successor did not get. Equally chilling is the fact that his 1950s counterpart was a fan and historian who took his worship of his subject all the way to having plastic and vocal cord surgery to completely resemble the original. The very term "fan" is short for "fanatic" and often fanatics can do the most terrible things in the name of their idols, with the idols having no say in the matter.

It's fitting that it's an issue (#155) from this final story which provides the cover, as it's here that the series gives every indication of stepping up a pace. Most of the earlier adventures are so so with some dips as the series takes an awkward turn or two, but the Falcon has proved a successful new element who has shaken up the series for the better. Things are encouraging for the next volume.

Some non-essential Spider-Man Essentials

Spider-Man has made many guest appearances in other titles over the years. Thanks to the Essential series many of the earlier ones have also been reprinted. I’m going to skip the numerous cameos but there are a number of more substantial stories that are worth noting here. A full listing of appearances can be found on SpiderFan.org, who have an amazing year by year timeline of all appearances from full issues down to one panel cameos at Comics: By Year. I’ve made use of that timeline to track down the substantial guest appearances. (Sometimes when checking an issue I’ve discovered the appearance is just a cameo so I’ve not included it here, in case there’s you see something on SpiderFan.org’s list that isn’t here.)

I’ve decided to split this into in several sections – first all the substantial guest appearances from the first twenty years are listed as broadly most of these issues have now been “Essentialised” and it’s possible to list the few absentees. In turn I’ve broken the first twenty years in two at 1972, partially for length but also because the cut-off point roughly coincides with the launch of Marvel Team-Up. After 1981 I will just list the handful of ones from the remaining thirty years that have so far been covered in the Essentials. I don’t have access to every single one so a selection only follows:


Strange Tales Annual #2, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (with Steve Ditko inking), reprinted in Essential Human Torch volume 1 and also in Essential Fantastic Four volume 2

Strange Tales was one of a number of anthology series produced by Marvel that carried various genres during its run and is best known for introducing Dr. Strange, then also running Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. But before that the Human Torch was given his own solo feature from issue #101 onwards (although from issue #123 the Thing became a co-star), which has become probably the single most forgotten of Marvel’s 1960s superhero features. The second annual has Spider-Man’s first ever guest appearance in another title. The story has what would become a fairly standard plot – one hero is framed for a crime, the other hero fights him for a while before realising his innocence and the two team up to bring the real criminal to justice. There’s some interesting features here such as Spider-Man seeking the Torch in the hope that if he can convince a publicly acceptable hero he can more easily clear his name, the Torch being a jealous hothead angry that Spidey gets all the headlines, there’s the first time Spider-Man adapts his webbing to deal with a particular foe – here adding supercold crystals to neutralise the Torch – and the real criminal is identified by a police inspector taking just a few minutes to go through the files. Curiously despite Spider-Man being framed for a crime and the newspapers falling for it, there’s no sign of Jonah or the Bugle. Indeed in general Spider-Man’s supporting cast are often completely absent in his guest appearances. Otherwise it’s a pretty fast-paced tale and only seems unoriginal in hindsight after so many later takes on the same formula. Unfortunately the art is an example that Jack Kirby generally just couldn’t draw a great Spider-Man, even with Ditko’s inking. The story also suffers from having the worst reproduction in this particular Essential volume. But it shows how Spidey and the Torch make for a good pairing, despite their irritations with each other.

The theme of the relationship of irritation between the two is covered again in #115 of the regular comic by Stan Lee & Dick Ayers, though Spidey himself makes only a cameo appearance. The Torch is informed that Spider-Man’s foe the Sandman is back in town, but instead of tipping off Spider-Man he challenges the Sandman himself, even disguising himself as Spidey when the Sandman doesn’t want to fight anyone else. The Torch succeeds but at the end Spidey arrives on the scene and notes the tensions between him and the Torch.

(Oh and another interesting story in this Essential volume, albeit absolutely nothing to do with Spidey, is #114 which has the first Silver Age appearance of Captain America – in a way. This Lee-Kirby story was widely forgotten about, even by Lee himself, until the late 1990s, when the team behind the brief-lived series Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty rediscovered it and created a sequel, with Cap and the Torch commenting on the absurdities of the original.)

Fantastic Four Annual #1, a back-up story by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (again with Steve Ditko inking), reprinted in Essential Fantastic Four volume 1

This six pager is the first retelling of a Spider-Man story, as it expands on the two & a third pages in Amazing Spider-Man #1 detailing Spider-Man’s first meeting with the Fantastic Four. This is literally just an extended fight sequence as Spidey takes on each of the Four one by one in more detail before Mr Fantastic stops the fight. A caption at the start claims this was created by popular demand after the letters received from readers. I hope the contemporary audience was satisfied – this was one of the earliest Marvel annuals but like many back-up features in subsequent annuals it’s entirely skippable.

Tales to Astonish #57 by Stan Lee and Dick Ayers, reprinted in Essential Astonishing Ant Man volume 1

Tales to Astonish was another of the anthology series, best known for giving a home to both the Incredible Hulk and the Sub-Mariner. But before that Ant-Man debuted way back in issue #27 and returned (by popular demand) in issue #35 for a run that lasted until issue #69. En route he gained a sidekick in the form of the Wasp, and then inverted his powers to also become Giant Man. Additionally the Wasp gained her own back up feature, first merely narrating stories but from #57 it became a more conventional adventure story. Issue #57 was also the issue in which the Wasp was given her “sting” weapon – and it features an encounter with Spider-Man. This time the villain Egghead tricks Giant Man and the Wasp into fighting Spider-Man as a distraction whilst he steals a payroll truck. When Giant Man discovers the crime the fight is cancelled and the heroes track down and defeat the villain. Once again we have an early example of what would become a stock formula for team-ups in years to come. And this is the third time that Spider-Man’s encounters with other heroes leads to a fight between them. The Wasp’s dislike of Spider-Man is introduced here and would remain poor for years – “I guess it’s because wasps and spiders are such natural enemies!” But the Wasp doesn’t have any real wasp power in her and it’s just a silly dislike. Also noticeably absent is Spider-Man’s witty banter during the fights. Here he’s just a standard hero, if a little angrier than most when attacked, and really anyone could have filled his role. In general this is a fairly mundane piece and entirely forgettable. But someone remembered it...

The story gained additional interest thirty-five years later in 1999 when John Byrne wrote and drew the 12 issue series Spider-Man: Chapter One retelling & refining Spidey’s first year. For some reason he opted to devote the penultimate issue (#11) to retelling this story even though I don’t think it was on many people’s list of key adventures to cover in the limited space available (condensing some 20+ issues into 12). Was the intention to show an example of Spidey’s usual early relationship with other superheroes? (That would at least explain why this one and not a Human Torch story.) Or was Byrne under pressure to include at least one story that isn’t in Essential Spider-Man volume 1? Or was it just creative indulgence?

Avengers #11, by Stan Lee and Don Heck, reprinted in Essential Avengers volume 1

This story sees the Avengers’ enemy Kang the Conqueror create a robotic duplicate of Spider-Man who successfully tricks the Avengers into believing the absent Iron Man has been kidnapped and taken to a temple in Mexico. The Avengers each make their own way there whilst Kang time teleports the robot over, and one by one the robot picks them off, helped by a soft nerve gas in the area dulling the heroes’ abilities. But before the robot can send the Avengers to Kang’s time the real Spider-Man shows up and declares his spider-sense spotted the duplicate and so he followed it to see what it was up to. Spidey fights the robot, eventually finding its deactivation switch and destroying it. This is a rather silly issue and I get the impression that it had a late in the day rewrite to include the real Spider-Man, possibly in place of a suddenly returned Iron Man who appears on the cover but not in the tale, either because Iron Man’s own story went a different way (but I’m not too familiar with contemporary Iron Man continuity) or because someone in Marvel realised it would be cheating the readers to lure them in with a promise of Spider-Man and not deliver the real thing. The most ludicrous point is the real Spider-Man suddenly showing up in Mexico – there’s no way he could have followed a teleporting robot there, and then since he doesn’t directly interact with the Avengers how is he to get back home? The artwork of Spider-Man is also quite bad (although there’s an even worse example in this volume in a cameo in issue #3, drawn by Jack Kirby) – he looks too muscular and the web lines aren’t kept under control. Overall this is a pretty poor story also let down by some of the silliness of the early Avengers years such as their rigid adherence to meeting protocols and their limited equipment that prevents them all going to Mexico together. This feels like the first case of a gratuitous guest appearance for the sake of sales rather than to tell a decent story.

Daredevil #16-17, by Stan Lee and John Romita, reprinted in Essential Daredevil volume 1

When Daredevil’s series originally launched the cover proclaimed it was in the same Marvel tradition that had brought Spider-Man, and Daredevil himself was given an early boost by his guest appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #16 (which came out the month between Daredevil #3 & 4). It’s surprising that it took so long for Spider-Man to make a reciprocal full appearance (these issues came out the same months as Amazing #36 & #37). This two part appearance saw John Romita draw Spidey for the first ever time, coming out a few months before he took over on Amazing Spider-Man. Romita’s first take on Spider-Man is a little different from what would come, as at this stage he’s largely trying to match Steve Ditko’s version of both Spidey and Peter Parker. However he gets Jonah straight off and doesn’t do too badly with Aunt May.

Plotwise we have a near rerun of the Giant Man and Egghead plot. Once again a villain is planning a big crime and as a distraction he frames one hero to trick another into fighting him, whilst the real crime happens. On this occasion the villain is the Masked Marauder but curiously it’s the host hero, Daredevil, who is framed whereas my impression is that it’s more usual for the guest hero to fall victim to this (although with Jonah briefly appearing, Spider-Man gets blamed by the Bugle anyway). Also unusually the Marauder doesn’t hide his own involvement with many assuming one or other of the heroes is in league with him. The second part sees a climax as Daredevil sets a trap for both Spider-Man and the Masked Marauder and the two heroes fight once more before the villain shows up, forcing them to join forces. The main point of originality in the story comes at the end of the first issue as Spider-Man searches for Daredevil with his Spider-sense and finds Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson’s office and assumes Foggy is Daredevil. Spidey breaks in to challenge Nelson upfront, even dangling him out of the window. Often the Spider-Man we get in guest appearances seems more hotheaded and aggressive than in his own series, and this is more than just presenting events from others’ point of view. Spidey’s accusations would also have repercussions in Daredevil’s series as Foggy is in no rush to deny them when secretary Karen Page asks if they’re true, instead enjoying her assumption that he’s a heroic adventurer. However at the end the escaping Marauder overhears them...

In general we’re yet again seeing a use of a stock formula of a framing, a fight and then a team-up. When read in close succession the heavy reliance on this formula does stand out, although during the original publication these stories came out months if not years apart and readers may not have noticed the similarities so readily.

Daredevil #27, by Stan Lee and Gene Colan, reprinted in Essential Daredevil volume 2

The Marauder storyline concludes in this issue, which contains a small guest appearance by Spider-Man. He is fighting a few thugs when Daredevil cuts in, to Spidey’s annoyance as this can damage a hero’s reputation. Daredevil asks if he’s seen Stilt-Man (who was actually taken seriously in those days) and they go their separate ways whilst Stilt-Man and the Marauder team up to kidnap Matt, Foggy and Karen in order to learn Daredevil’s identity. Stilt-Man is sent to find Matt’s twin brother Mike (actually Matt in disguise – don’t ask!) but runs into Spider-Man who is eventually defeated with a gas pellet. Meanwhile Daredevil has defeated the Marauder, who falls to his death, and then disables Stilt-Man’s mechanism. For Spider-Man this is quite a brief encounter that shows his continued tense relationship with other heroes.

X-Men #35, by Roy Thomas and Werner Roth, reprinted in Essential Classic X-Men volume 2

This appears to be the first time a substantial Spider-Man appearance was written by someone other than Stan Lee. Spidey had had a previous brief cameo in issue #27, also by Thomas and Roth, where he beats the Beast and Iceman to capture some bank robbers. With the X-Men badly understrength at this point Spider-Man is offered membership but he declines, having recently gone through the mess of the Avengers’ offer (in Amazing annual #3).

Issue #35 is another fight due to wrong assumptions but they’re accidental this time. The issue is part of a wider story involving the kidnap of Professor X by Factor Three. The X-Men’s ally Banshee locates Factor Three’s base where he encounters a robotic spider guard, and before he passes out he sends a message “Beware the spider” to the X-Men. Meanwhile Peter Parker has gone a motorcycle ride outside New York and finds himself strangely drawn up to Westchester where a metal egg appears of the sky and lands, revealing the robotic spider. Peter changes to Spider-Man and fights the robot, tricking it into destroying itself. Meanwhile the X-Men’s computer Cerebro detects mutant activity in the area and the X-Men dash to deal with it. They assume Spider-Man is the menace Banshee warned off and battle him until Marvel Girl contacts them with the news Cerebro’s activity has ceased suggesting Spider-Man is not the menace. Spidey tells them about the robotic spider but refuses to let the X-Men give an apology and explanation. This is quite a packed issue and generally Thomas gets the hang of Spider-Man’s dialogue, though the journey into the countryside and “drawn by fate” seem at odds with the regular series. However we get yet another fight for the sake of it which doesn’t really contribute to the ongoing storyline, and more jerkish behaviour from Spider-Man as a hero who’s been misunderstood more times than any other is reluctant to give the X-Men the benefit of the doubt. The artwork also doesn’t quite capture Spider-Man correctly. Again this feels like an appearance for the sake of it.

Fantastic Four #73, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, reprinted in Essential Fantastic Four volume 4 and also in Essential Daredevil volume 2

This is a crossover climax to a storyline in Daredevil (hence appearing in both Essentials) in which Daredevil and Doctor Doom briefly swapped bodies. After the process is reversed Daredevil escapes and heads to warn the Fantastic Four, but Doom is able to mimic Daredevil’s voice and tells the FF that Daredevil is Doom in disguise, coming to attack them. After briefly overpowering the Human Torch, Daredevil runs into Spider-Man who believes him and agrees to help, and then goes off to get another pair of hands – Thor, who has recently had his powers stripped from them. This leads into a protracted battle as Daredevil fights Mr Fantastic, Thor the Thing and Spider-Man the Human Torch, defeating him by luring him into a chemical plant and overpowering him with fumes. The entire battle is ended by the arrival of the Invisible Girl who confirms that Daredevil is the real one because he can’t be Dr. Doom as she’s just seen the real Doom on television, giving a speech in Latveria. (Now which Marvel villain has more robotic duplicates than any other...?) This particular issue as a whole is pretty poor and little more than an excuse to have the Fantastic Four fight some guest stars. However it does show that Spider-Man’s relationship with other heroes is evolving in that he is first willing to trust Daredevil and then able to talk Thor into joining them by suggesting he’s a coward. This issue came out the same month as Amazing #59 and is a sign of how Spidey’s early antagonistic relationship with other superheroes has been refined to one where he’s more willing to work with others and even knows which buttons to press.

Silver Surfer #14, by Stan Lee and John Buscema, reprinted in Essential Silver Surfer volume 1

The Surfer’s original series ran into early troubles sparking radical changes, including ditching the bi-monthly double sized format in favour of a standard monthly, and then started running guest stars in most issues. Spider-Man was the first of the regular guest stars and we get another fight when Spider-Man’s webbing accidentally catches the Surfer’s board and the two soon come to blows as Spidey wants off but the Surfer believes he is being tricked by humans so he can be attacked yet again. Spidey is pretty aggressive, pursuing the matter further but the Surfer declines to use his full force. The police and military show up to take down the Surfer, but when he leaves himself vulnerable to save a boy both they and Spidey back off. Spidey leaves realising he’s been guilty of the same misjudgement he is so often the victim of. Spidey once more shows his aggressive, hotheaded side that is so often the main focus of his guest appearances and the similarities between the way the world treats him and he treats the Surfer aren’t as fully explored as they might be. Given the direction of the book it’s hard to deny this is an audience boosting appearance though.

Captain America and the Falcon (as it was then titled) #137-138, by Stan Lee, Gene Colan (#137) and John Romita (#138), reprinted in Essential Captain America volume 3

This story focuses upon the relationship between Cap and the Falcon, with the latter feeling undervalued and seeking to prove his worth, and a Harlem gang lord blackmailing the government by threatening to start riots. The Falcon spots Spider-Man and decides to bring him in to prove his worth, and he sends his companion hawk Redwing to follow Spider-Man, leading him to Peter and Harry’s flat. The Falcon assumes Harry is Spider-Man and captures him, only for the real Spider-Man to save him, knocking the Falcon out in the process. The following issue sees Spider-Man seeking the Falcon for a rematch and to learn why he attacked him, only to find the Falcon has been captured by the Harlem gang lord. Spidey rescues the Falcon and fights him, with Captain America and Redwing joining in, until the Falcon realises he’s been a jerk and they all team up to take down the gang lord. Similar to the earlier Daredevil appearance we see heroes proving rather better than everyone else at getting close to other heroes’ secret identities, only to accuse the first able-bodied man in sight upon arrival. The Falcon’s motivations for fighting Spider-Man are understandable, though Spider-Man’s reluctance to leave the matter after his first fight isn’t so clear. The story is mainly a spotlight on the Falcon but as a hero with a poor relationship with the law, Spidey is one of the few who could serve the role in this story and so his appearance here feels more natural than many.

Daredevil #77 by Gerry Conway and Gene Colan, reprinted in Essential Daredevil volume 4

An interesting little tale that starts with Spider-Man seeing Daredevil passing in the night and each man reflects on his recent relationship issues – Spider-Man on Gwen Stacy thinking he killed her father and how she doesn’t know Spider-Man is her boyfriend (this issue came out the same month as Amazing #97), Daredevil on how Karen Page does know his identity couldn’t marry him with both his identities. It’s a nice little compare and contrast moment between the two heroes. Peter gets back to his flat where he’s visited by Mary Jane (although the inker confuses her with Gwen so in black & white, at least, she looks blonde). However Peter quickly aborts the meeting because of commotion outside which also draws in Daredevil. In Central Park a glowing giant teardrop speaks, demanding to speak to Namor the Sub-Mariner who has been drawn there. Just as Namor approaches, Daredevil shows up and assumes Namor is responsible and the two get in a fight. Spider-Man subsequently arrives and also engages in battle, refusing to accept Daredevil’s claim it’s his fight, and the two take on the Sub-Mariner with Spider-Man almost competing with Daredevil. The fight is stopped when the teardrop explodes to reveal a mysterious woman who demands Namor come with her, and having detected vibrant young power within Spider-Man she asks for him also. The woman, Namor, Spidey and the teardrop all vanish, leaving Daredevil to head home. Whilst there are some subplots advanced in this issue, the main part feels very much like both Namor and Spider-Man are intruding upon Daredevil’s title. Spider-Man is given some good scenes in the early part of the issue that tie in well to then-current events in his own title, but once in action he acts like the jerk he so often is in guest appearances, refusing to back off and being quite competitive.

Spider-Man and Namor’s story continues in Sub-Mariner #40, again by Gerry Conway and Gene Colan, but as Daredevil didn’t accompany them that issue isn’t included in his Essential run, whilst the Sub-Mariner has probably been served worse by the Essentials than any other Silver Age Marvel hero, with just one solitary volume so far that only gets as far as the first issue of his series, and that didn’t appear until 2009. Maybe one day we’ll get further volumes that reach #40 and I’ll be able to come back and add my thoughts on that particular issue.


With the exception of that Sub-Mariner issue, that’s all the major appearances I’m aware of from this era. And look how few there were. Spider-Man may have been an early hit whose popularity then grew and grew, but he wasn’t mercilessly dropped into numerous other series to boost them (though the Silver Surfer appearance was an exception). Instead the guest appearances are limited and aiming to tell good stories, to mixed success. Spider-Man also encountered a number of other heroes in his own series, but wisely Marvel limited those and created a specific title for team-ups at the end of this period.

The thing that stands out the most in many of these appearances is just how much of a hot-headed jerk Spider-Man can be, getting into fights all too easily. It’s little wonder that so many other heroes automatically assume the worst of him. But it’s also disappointing that so often this is almost all there is to Spider-Man. Whilst it would be possible to present him as a mysterious, uncertain figure as seen from the host character’s point of view, the stories invariably assume familiarity and show or reference his life as Peter Parker, so removing that angle of approach. This just leaves a jerk who easily gets into fights for the sake of it – but very often that’s all he’s there for.